RMIM meet report - 2019

Prologue: " Is Surjit Singh the founder of RMIM? " was an innocent query that came up at Chetan's place on Friday. Kalyan had us in splits with " This is like saying Usha Khanna is the first female composer of HFM ". At that very moment, Ashok started descending the stairs from smoker’s lobby, and a chorus enveloped the room "Samrat Ashoka, padhaar rahe hain".

It is during such informal settings that formal events are planned and executed, giving vibrancy and shelf life to RMIM. The stage was already set; and each of the hosts started dropping by and providing the updates on the preparations. Kalyan and Shailendra went to pick up Sudha Malhotra ji from the airport and dropped at her hotel; Gajendra and Shailendra checked the sound system at the venue. Newspaper clippings of the event in Deccan Herald and The Hindu were shared.

One missing task was to make copies of Sudha Malhotra songs, which was assigned to Anup. Kalyan declared that among the core group, Anup is the only person who is less reliable than him 😊Anup arrived with a bunch of laptops and no CD’s. His expectation was that they would be there at Chetan’s place. True to his wish, Chetan came up with an empty bundle and the rest of the evening was spent burning CD’s while the usual banter continued.

Saturday:
Gajendra played a few favorites of Chitrgupt and it was time for quick introductions. Each participant was asked to announce their name, place of residence and favorite song of Chitragupt or Shamshad.

The choices for Chitragupt ranged from "Jaag dil e diwana " to "muskuraao ke jii nahiin lagta" with no clear favorite. Favorites of Shamshad covered wide spectrum too with “o leke pehla pehla pyaar” and "kabhi aar kabhi paar” picked by more than 1 member.

It was time to listen to songs of Sudha ji and Gajendra asked everyone to name favorite songs of her. Tum mujhe bhool bhi Jaao was the favorite for most followed by “na main dhan chahuun” and “salaam-e-hasrat”.
Meanwhile Shailendra was calling me to update on Sudhaji’s arrival and I was communicating to other hosts. Arunabha came with a good stock of water and soft drinks, which kept us cool throughout the balmy afternoon.

Sudha ji arrived, and was greeted with a bouquet and welcome speech by Chiranjeev ji. She lit the lamp and inaugurated the meet. This was followed by Kanchan's Saraswati Vandana.

Sudha ji recalled childhood memories and an opportunity to sing before Master Ghulam Haider.

She recounted many anecdotes including the recording of Kabhi kabhi mere dil me. This was initially recorded as a duet of her and Geeta Dutt for a Chetan Anand film which was never released. She also sang a few lines of the song as well as " tum mujhe bhool bhi Jaao ".

Sudha ji was pleasantly surprised to see some of her rare pictures. She was curious to know the source and when we pointed to Kaustubh Pingle, she was quite happy. Seeing one picture she recalled that it was at the mandir in her house. Purushottam Jalota and Manna Dey also sang Bhajans at the mandir.

She talked about various composers including Roshan. The composer reflected in his voice and facial expressions what he wanted to convey to the singers.

She was equally fascinated to hear some of her lesser known songs like "Aawaaz de" from Gauhar. She also talked about her song in Prem Rog. Raj Kapoor heard her Ghazal composer by Jagjit Singh “aashna hokar agar na aashna ho jaayega” and approached her family. Sudha Ji's husband had high regard for Raj Kapoor  and agreed.

After a scrumptious lunch, Sudha ji released the Shamshad commemorative. We presented Sudha ji her a CD of her songs. We also gave her a Saraswati Murti made of Sandalwood as a token of gratitude.


Sunny Matthew’s session:

We then had a documentary on Sunny Mathew ji’s record museum in Kottayam. The museum has a huge collection of records as well as instruments. After the documentary, Sunny ji played some recordings in his collection. We could readily recognize some Malayalam songs as they had hindi versions. In addition to songs, his collection includes some historic pieces that have been preserved for posterity.

Kushal Gopalka on his seminar: Kushal is one of the music connections I had made when I used to do monthly mehfils in Delhi. He organises “Cine Music Beyond Entertainment in Mumbai every year and incidentally Sudha Malhotra ji was the chief guest for the event last year. Infact the Kushal connection also played a role in Sudha ji attending the meet. Kushal presented highlights of his previous seminars and invited use to his upcoming one. DVD’s of his sessions are also available.

Quiz time:

It was now the turn of quizzes. Kalyan's spicy quiz was missing, and even the food courtesy Kalyan's regular caterer was mild.

First on agenda was Shekar’s Badalte Saathi, with a twist. Instead of singers; the actors on whom the song is picturised were changing. Considering this was Shekhar’s golden era, there were enough KA and RD song to pump up Anirudha and myself. Before the meet, I told Arunabha that I was going to be very quiet and happy to occupy the back benches with him. He wanted one “Jai Santoshi Ma” movement and it came thanks to “Gentle man gentle man” from Gopi. Consequently, our team made a lot of noise but Anil Hingorani and team were the silent killers who beat us to second place.

The next quiz by Abhay Phadnis need us to pick the common theme among a set of questions. Once again Arunabha and Anirudha, were going steady only to be denied by Ashok with a six of the last question.

I couldn’t pay much attention to Guri’s quiz as was busy setting up the hangout. We could see Anup Ray and Aditya Pant join briefly. It was the usual audio and video clues one, with the wrong audios  associated with the videos. The quiz has now been posted on facebook.

Dosa and Bisibelle Bath was dinner menu and I soon left the venue.

Sunday:

Gajendra started the proceedings by presenting summary of Chitragupt’s career taken from the book Dhuno Ki Yatra.

Suresh Ji's session on Manna Dey was next on agenda. The highlights included the Amar Bhoopali number “ghana shyama sundaro” in Bengali and “Hey Namrata ke Samrat” written by Gandhi ji. Dr. Chandvankar had extensively talked about the making of “hey Namrata ke samrat” at an earlier RMIM meet and briefly explained the history behind this Vasant Desai composition.

Gajendra’s memories of Shamshad Begum:

He had visited her in 2012 and what was planned to be a brief meeting got extended. Insights into her personality, her beliefs in many faiths and her sense of humor were shared. Even though she was 93, her memory was quite sharp and she recalled even about her childhood days. Her uncle Amiruddin took her to an audition with master Ghulam Haider and she was asked to sign a contract the same day. That was the beginning of her long career and the entire interview is available online.

One interesting aspect was her opinion on remixes. To Gajendra’s surprise, Shamshad ji believed remixes kept her songs alive and she was in favor of them.

 Post lunch we got to meet family members of 2 film personalities.

Rakesh Solomon, Composer Vinod’s Grandson, came with his family. He brought an antique piece, the harmonium that Vinod had used, as well as some rare pictures.

Ranjan Sain, nephew of producer director K. Amarnath, was another guest connected to film world. He mentioned about a forthcoming book written by him on his uncle.

Panel discussion:

We then had a panel discussion on the impact of Social media on music and films. Anil Hingorani, Guri and Sushrut Vaidya were the members and Abhay Phadnis moderated the discussion. Anil pointed out that social media has given rise to forums like RMIM which started as a Usenent group 27 years back. While the panel agreed that youtube was a boon, a concern was expressed on morphed and fake videos circulating there. Dr. Chandvankar said that it is our responsibility to add comments under such videos to ensure that incorrect information is not circulated. Colorization of black and white films was a controversial topic and the panel debated on its aesthetics.

Anil recalled that collectors charged him Rs. 2000 for a single song in the 80’s and recalled how we shared rare songs on RMIM. Sharing was not always welcome though and the episode of publicly sharing a prized possession of one RMIMer and the ensuing reaction, seemed to be fresh even 2 decades after the incident.  

Kushal Gopalka on Shamshad:

Kushal had a close association with Shamshad during her later years. Kushal added a few points that Gajendra didn’t cover. OP Nayyar had sung in the chorus for a Shamshad Begum song and wanted her to sing for him when he became a composer. Shamshad ji said that she will definitely sing and whatever she sang for him became a hit; “kabhi aar kabhi paar”; “leke pehla pehla pyaar” and “Kajra mohabbat waala” are song examples where she sang just a single song for the film but that became iconic.

Singing session:

The singing session was started by local professional singer Nagraj.  He regaled us with a wonderful rendition of “tere mandir ka huun jal rahaa”. Kushal sang “kahiin duur jab din dhal jaaye”. As a tribute to Chitragupt ji, Gauri Diwan sang “na to dard gayaa”. Kanchan then joined with " bachpan ke din bhulaa na dena"

Kalyan was prompted to sing and Anup shared their experiences of learning music in bay area. Apparently, the music teacher first used to ask Kalyan if he understood, implying that if Kalyan gets it then everyone else have understood. This prompted a question as to whether Kalyan sings in Ashuddh Kalyan.

The singing finale had Guri with “yeh ishq ishq” accompanied by Sushruth and we signed off by accompanying Guri in “ye raaten ye mausam, ye hasna hasaana”.

The meet concluded with a vote of thanks. While all the organizers played their part; Shailendra and his family deserved special mention. Shailendra was the coordinator and silently worked in the background to ensure that it all went smoothly. 

We also expressed our thanks to all the attendees for making it a grand success. Till we meet again in Chennai, so long ...

aaj phir jeene ki tamanna hai

“Will he be able do justice to music of SD Burman?” That was the question in the mind of Shahsikant Joshi when I invited him to the concert. The remark was not off the mark as Shashi is a veteran member of RMIM, a group filled with informed listeners and critiques. Now did Prahlad and team pass the litmus test? Read on to find out.

The evening opened with Prahlad’s parents and grandmother lighting the lamp and a lovely performance by a budding dancer.

Apoorva gave a brief introduction to SD Burman; and highlighted that he left royalty to take up music. Prahlad walked in to a warm applause and opened with “Jalte hain jiske liye” that set the stage for the evening. Majrooh Sultanpuri’s ability to fit words to tunes was recalled.

Rujuta started with “phir na kiije meri wafa”…and then Prahlad chipped in with the dialogues that Guru Dutt says “dekhiye maine kahaa”. Perhaps most of the audience was not familiar with this part as this is often chopped off. Once Rujuta came to “jaane kyaa tune kahi” the auditorium sprung to life.

I suggested Prahlad to throw in a few questions to the audience while referring to the songs. While Prahlad made appropriate additions to my script, he ensured that this “dialogue with audience” reflected throughout. When Apporva introduced a song from Bandini and dropped a few hints about the lyricist; the audience promptly responded “Gulzar”. Rujuta seamlessly transited from “Geeta Dutt” to “Lata Mangeshkar” with “mora gora ang laile”. SD used “Chinese blocks” in both these numbers and the orchestra did a great job reproducing those sounds.

The next clue to the audience was to guess which voice suited Dev Anand the most. 

The hint that when it comes to hit ratio; it was neither Kishore nor Rafi was sufficient for the audience. The auditorium echoed “Hemant Kumar”! “na tum hamen jaano” by Prahlad was well received. When the name of the lyricist “Majrooh Sultanpuri” was announced, a kid sitting next to me whispered “Majrooh Sultanpuri again?” Majrooh’s songs came throughout the evening and not surprisingly as his association with SD spanned form 50’s right through 70's.

 The next number “din dhal jaaye” was also appreciated. Apoorva briefly touched upon the music and making of Guide and tidbits and songs from the movie were liberally sprinkled trough out the evening. Prahlad’s string of solos continued with “dil ka bhanvar” and “wahaan kaun hai tera”. SD’s use of folk music was highlighted before the latter song from Guide.

Rujuta then joined Prahlad with “shokiyon men ghola jaaye” and true to the words, it had an intoxicating effect.

The audience were engrossed in the melody and the ensuing silence suddenly transformed to a roar. Yes, the magnetic personality of Aniket Prabhu now took centre stage. His voice and screen presence set the stage on fire. “khoya chaand” had the audience requesting an encore. He obliged with another stanza of the song.

As Apporva said “Abhimaan”, the audience roared approvingly. Rujuta’s wonderful rendition of “ab to hai tumse” was followed by “piya tose naina laage re” also song by her.

Apoorva mentioned SD’s ability to come up with youthful tunes even at an older age. Prahlad’s “meet na mila re manka” followed by “gun guna rahe hain banvare” with Aniket and Rujuta underscored the point. One gentleman in the audience was quite demanding and insisted that they sing the “sun pass to aao” antara. Aniket and Rujuta obliged. He then asked for “mere man tera pyaasa” but Aniket politely refused as the song was not part of the list and was not rehearsed.

A brief instrumental rendition of “megha chaaye aadhi raat” by Ishwar on the violin cast a magic spell on the audience. It was followed by an equally captivating rendition of the Sharmilee stunner by Rujuta.

Although he sang only one solo, Nilanjan’s “Nishite jaiyo phulo bone” was so well rendered that it was one of the highlights of the evening. Naturally the audience responded, “once more” and he kept going back and forth between the bangla and hindi versions. The Bangla version was released way back in 1935 and has withstood the ravages of time.

It was now time for a break and I caught up with Shahsikant and family.  I was transported back to the 90’s when a search on the nascent internet for a popular song lyric would often land up on a contribution from “pankha road se pintu diwana”.  Although it was the first time we met, we started talking as if we were old friends separated in childhood! Our conversation was interrupted by Prahlad’s wife, Aditi; “The concert is going to resume”.  Aditi, was one of the organisers working tirelessly behind the scenes. I could spot her running around; managing the box office, attending phone calls and greeting people with boundless energy and enthusiasm. 

When we came back, Apoorva was quoting a few lines from “Sargamer Nikhad” the autobiography of SD. Aniket then teamed up with Rujuta for “paanch rupaiya barah aana” and had the audience in splits as he enacted the scene from the movie.

Madhura then gave a charming rendition of “tadbeer se bidgi hui”. Wonderful guitar accompaniment by Bob and Vivek enhanced the appeal.

The Sawal Jawaab style of songs now came to the fore. The audience rightly guessed “achha ji main haari” by Prahlad and Rujuta. Rujuta was joined by Aniket for “ham aap ki aankhon men” and “deewana mastana hua dil”. These foot-tapping duets were followed by equally catch solos rendered energetically by Aniket; “ham hain raahi pyaar ke” and “mana janaab ne pukara nahiin” and the audience sang along. Tere Ghar Ke Saamne title song by Aniket and Rujuta followed.

For “baiThe hain kyaa uske paas” Rujuta was joined by Madhura. This is very difficult to sing but the ladies managed to do justice to the higher octaves.

This was one of the few songs in the evening where the audience expected something else. When Asha song from Jewel Thief was announced, I could hear “raat akeli hai” from the audience. Occasionally it’s nice to spring a surprise but reading the pulse of the audience is important for live shows.

This is precisely why I liked the song selections. These may not satisfy the connoisseur in me but when you are putting it out for public consumption a lot of parameters must be weighed in. Songs Popularity, singer’s and orchestra’s comfort level as well as favourites of the team. Overall the playlist spanned the decades but with a composer as versatile as SD Burman it is impossible to cover all genres and singers.

While discussing the sequence of songs with Prahlad, we went over a few scenarios. A chronological presentation would put “badi sooni sooni hai” at the end and the concert would close with a sombre note. The preferred alternates were “honton pe aisi baat” and “mere sapnon ki raani”. The Aradhana song was a nice way to talk about the legacy of SD Burman and it was decided to end the concert with it.

These three choices happened to be the last songs for the evening in that precise order. “Honton pe aisi baat” reverberated through the auditorium with the audience dancing to the beat. Prahlad also improvised a little on the compositions by adding chorus accompaniment.

Geeta Sundar, Apoorva, Nilanjan, Swarn, Madura, Salman did a great job as backing vocalists. And the entire orchestra team lived through the songs.

2 keys - Rohit and Vaibhav

Rhythm guitar - Bob

Bass guitar - Vivek

Drums – Sachin

 Dholak - Rajendra

Tabla - Harsha

Violin - Ishwar

Accompanying percussions - Lakshmi Prabhu

At the end of the program I observed Shashikant talking to Prahlad. After complementing Prahlad, the conversation drifted to Shashikant’s poetry and if Prahlad could compose them. While that answers the question I posed at the beginning, it also sets the bar higher. Greater expectations and perhaps a few more discerning audience in future shows.

The evening gave unbridled joy to the audience. Folks were cheering, dancing and just having a good time.   Apne hi bas men nahiin man, dil hain kahiin to huun kahiin main…

Isn’t life worth living for such evenings?

Shailendra's lyrics sum it up the best.

Aaj phir jeene ki tamanna hai…

  

vo jab yaad aaye bahut yaad aaye

Baithaks and Bhajan Mandali’s have started dominating our musical landscape; and concerts have been pushed to the background. Sunday gave us the perfect opportunity to make amends and in fact we were spoilt for choice. We chose "saaz  Aur awaaz" over “sama hai suhana suhana”as it promised more variety; tribute to 3 legends as opposed to 1. Presence of BK Birla and his Bhoole Bisre Geet (BBG) gang was a bonus. We arrived at the venue well in time and caught up with Birla. He introduced me to Vinayak Wad and not surprisingly we had a lot of common friends. Shankar Jaikishan and SD Burman dominated our brief musical discussion.

The evening started with invocation of Lord Ganesha The compere Shalini made the session quite interactive by asking us to guess the name of the song coming up by providing clues. First on the list was a song from Bahare Phir Bhi Aayegi sung by Rafi. It was obvious to us as well as members of BBG but the opening bars of music led us astray. We realized that they were playing Sholay theme music before the actual song began. Vikram Dixit, began with “aap ke hasiin rukh pe” and followed with another OP Nayyar composition, kiss na kisi. se kabhi na kabhi from Kashmir Ki Kali He did an excellent job and sounded very close to Rafi. But when his turn to sing " ek ajnabi Hasina se" came I noticed that he can sing Kishore even better.  Shalini announced that it was time to meet the “Hasina” and asked the next singer to come on stage; Shruti Raghavendran. The applause form the BBG gang indicated that she was not an “ajnabi Hasina”, but a familiar one. Shruti was joined by Kumaran and they performed “jab deep jale aana” with gusto. While Shalini was having fun, the BBG gang was one step ahead. Shalini was building a theme around the songs and quipped, “Hasina se mulaqat ho gai aur saawam ka mausha hai. Ab aage kya hoga?” She was leading us to the next song but a mischevious BBGian responded "baccha" which had us in splits.

“Madhuban men raadhika naache re” followed and it showcased Vikram’s classical training. Kumaran gave an equally compelling rendition with the Rajesh Roshan classic “kaa karuun sajni”. Aditya Vittal was the next performer and began with "o mere dil ke chain". This 18 year old is buzzing with talent.  This was followed by 2 duets performed by Vikram and Shruti; “is mod pe  jaate hain” "vo jab yaad aaye". The latter was a tribute to composer Laxmikant on his birthday.

Shalini asked us to guess the next number originally sung by Rafi from Teen Deviyan. I initially thought of “kahiin bekhayal hokar” and later guessed correctly that it is “aise to na dekho”. Vikram negotiated the highs and the lows as well as the pauses in this SD Burman stunner very smoothly. It was now Vikram’s turn to ask the audience to guess a song from Baap Re Baap and ofcourse it was “Piya piya piya”. This is a relatively younger voice of Kishore and Vikram managed to bring this hue remarkably well. He and Shruti recreated the magic of this number with their lively stage presence. Aditya returned with “mere dil me aaj kya hai” and I was pointing to Sushmita that this song was made almost 3 decades before the singer was born. Big credit to Aditya’s parents for instilling interest in him. The first half of the program ended with a dedication to BBG team with a lovely rendition of “madhuban kushbuu deta hai” by Kumaran.

A short break ensued, which we enjoyed with Sandwiches while interacting with members of BBG. We rejoined, and it was announced that Vikram was going to sing 5 songs straight. Vikram began with a song from Night in London.  When the audience rightly guessed as Nazar na lag jaaye he responded " exactly". “mere saamne waale khidki men” and “main huun jhuum jhum jhumroo” followed. Sushmita's favourite Raaga is Shivaranjani and she was delighted when “mere naina saawan  badho” was performed. It was lapped up by the audience and they demanded an encore, which was obliged. Shaildenra's words in Talat Mahmood’s" hai sab se madhur vo geet jo dard ke sur men gaate hain" never sounded more apt. It was now time for peppy songs and orchestra by Suresh and team stood out. The Violin in “dard-e-dil dard-e-jigar dil men jagaaya aapne” and the Saxophone in “badan pe sitaare lapeTe hue” got the audience pumped up. Kumaran and Shruti were in unison with “ Jaan-e-man tere do nayan” and “tuu jo mere sur men”.

Vikram joined them for “mohabbat bade kaam ki chiiz hai' and the atmosphere was charged up as a couple started dancing.  “inteha ho gaii” and “hamko to yaara teri yaari” got the crowd onto their feet and the entire BBG group started dancing. I noticed that “o Hasina zulfon waali” got Sushmita tapping her feet and we joined the fun. The concert ended on a high note with audiences singing along to the beats of “jai jai shiv Shankar”.

All the singers and members of the orchestra led by Shankar did a wonderful job. It was gratifying to note that the compere mentioned the names of the composer and lyricist along with singers and movie name without any errors. It was nice to hear the mention of Asab Bhopali’s and Shamshul Huda Bihari’s; not exactly household names in the public domain.

“vo jab yaad aaye bahut yaad aaye” was a nostalgic reminder of radio listening era as well as ode to Delhi days when concerts were a staple diet. Here’s looking forward to an encore.

Musings at the Moloy residence

We are all familiar with post meet hangovers. Here is an attempt to recap those moments. Thanks to Kanchan and Moloy for hosting this wonderful session.

Chetan's prompt call on Saturday meant that we were going to gather at Chiranjeevi ji's place and go together to Moloy's house. Chetan and I came as planned and Chiranjeevi Singh had a guest which meant that Kalyan (K) got an alibi. K came in with a huge bag and declared that these are Anup's T -shirts. I wondered if these got exchanged during laundry, and they are planning to collaborate on a movie.

Meanwhile Chiranjeev ji got the Sunday edition of hindu and pointed to an article authored by Anup Pandey. The immediate question on everyone's minds 'is this our Anup Pandey?". We spent the next few minutes debating if it was indeed Anup before leaving for the venue. We found it even more of a coincidence that his cousin Namrata Joshi's article was right above this article.

 We reached Moloy's place around noon. I got the 4 CD connoisseurs set of SDB's Bengali songs for Moloy. The song I have been hooked to the last few days was "ai chaithi sandhya jai britha”. While I understood the meaning of the first couple of words, Moloy clarified that Jai britha is leaving; so, it is referring to "passing of the evening of chaitra month".

 K's dream:

 Moloy proposed a toast to celebrate the success of the meet; K mentioned that while he never drinks in real life he got a dream the previous night in which he was drinking. Ashok asked us to find a fitting song for this scenario and mentioned that he has "kal raat zindagi se mulaqaat ho gayi" in his mind.

K added that he often gets dreams of movies and narrated that instance of Shin Shinaki Bublaa Boo. I wondered if one can get such long dreams and Chetan clarified that dreams are short but can cover a wide frame of time.

KA show:

The Purvanchal Gang beat the South Bangalore team (Ashok, Anup, Shailendra) in reaching the venue. As Anup (A) entered he said " we thought we would be coming first because the K-Factor would delay the Purvanchal Gang". We went to congratulate A and learnt that the delay was because of the A-Factor; responding to phone calls inquiring if he wrote the article in Hindu.

K and A were trying to outsmart each other throughout the evening.  The only thing missing was Kalyanji Anandji's background music which was a staple fare in many action movies.

We enjoyed Samosa and Bacarwadi along with the drinks while discussing about Ravi's music. Chiranjeev ji declared that 'sab kuchh luTaa ke hosh men aaya' is the composer’s best song. K reminded of Ashok's article that talks about Ravi having a limited variety of songs. "ai mere dil-e-nadan", "vo dil kahaan se laauun"and a few other melodious numbers of Ravi were recalled. His interview claiming that he purchased film fare records was also discussed. When the topic is

film fare awards, SJ and LP cannot be far behind. So they were also the topic of discussion.

Making of Teesri Qasam and the hardships faced by Shailendra was debated.

Our own Shailendra got along HQ Chowdhury's SD Burman book, which he borrowed from me.

Moloy mentioned that he read the book and there are a few references where SD mentioned that the lyrics came first. The consensus based on interviews of various celebrities were that the tune came first with some exceptions.

Rest of the pre-lunch session was focussed on mythology, and history. Ramayana and Mahabharata; Origins of Lahore (named after Prince Lava);  Chiranjeevi's of Hindu mythology; were some of the topics discussed.

 Konkani lunch:

Lunch included Sevige served with Coconut milk and Dal with Baby mangoes.It also had Khotte; Idli stuffed in Jack Fruit leaves. This is a popular delicacy in our house too and we call it Kotteka Butta in Telugu. This led to a discussion of ancestral origins and K reminded A that his ancestors ran away from Maharashtra to the mountains :)

Some of the food was catered and Ashok enquired if we can engage them for the next meet.

Next Meet:

We promptly discussed about the next meet and Chiraanjeev ji proposed another CR tribute show with sponsorship. November, December was suggested although K interjected; "There could be other meets at that time". It is left to the audience imagination if this was another dream of his?

Do's and don’ts for the next meet were discussed, and a rigid agenda vs free flowing style was debated. We concluded that,irrespective of the format, everyone cannot be pleased. Chetan summed it up well by saying that someone must 'stand-up"for a meet to be organised. He and Ashok did in the past; K did for the previous 2 times and Shailendra did it this time. Ashok noted that this duty comes in multiples, and proposed Shailendra to captain the next effort. Shailendra and his family’s efforts to make the meet a success were specially appreciated. Some suggestions included announcing the meet date 3-4 months in advance and taking the group picture on Saturday when maximum number of attendees are present.

 The 'Moloy" of memories, flowers and food:

I wondered what Moloy meant, and referred to another Bengali song of Sachin Karta "moloyo chalo dheere". I am interpreting it as fragrance in this context, although there are other variants.

K talked about some of Piyush Sharma's interviews. Vijay Anand's mention made Moloy quite nostalgic. He recalled his days in Lamington Road in the 70's when he got introduced to Ketan Anand through a common friend and recalled Ketan to be an intelligent person who did critical analysis of his uncle’s films including 'tere mere sapne".

Discussion turned to Runa Laila and Vani Jairam; two singers who apparently made Lata insecure. Moloy again dug into his memory bank and recalled an amusing incident. It was a quiet day at work and a Runa Laila song was playing on "Hi Hello" Moly was waiting for a phone call that would confirm the signing of a contract and was forced to listen to "Hi Hello" the entire day.

 We experienced real Fragrance too, thanks to the Sampige flowers in the garden. Since we were right next to Sampige road, this is probably not unusual.

And then we turned to the "moloy" of fish; or shall we call "amoloy" Different varieties of cooking of fish were recounted. Bengali's fry it before cooking as compared to South Indians; and this emanates more odour. Since the majority were vegetarians, we associate fish with odour rather than aroma :)

Moloy also mentioned that most of the fish consumed is fresh water and A quipped if fish from Ganges are consumed.

K: " Upstream fish are more fit". A: 'You seem to have a lot of experience".

I was left wondering if K ever ate fish in his dream.

Now that we were done with Moloy, we turned to Banerjee. Moloy had 3 Banerjee's in mind who were quite famous but never used Banerjee as part of their name. Kalyan guessed Ravi Shankar

Banerjee but Moloy said that these were much more famous. Raja Rammohan Roy, Rabindranath Tagore were among the correct answers.

Which CR movie name resembles your personality?

 K started, "did you notice how 80 year olds fought for the mike at the meet? Everyone else stared at each other "K is adding masala to it".

I pointed out that during a recent conversation a friend proposed naming people after CR's movies and Jhamela and Hangama fitted K. Ashok called himself Nastik and proposed Insaaniyat for Chinranjeev Singh. Anup and Moloy both tried to choose Albela. After some time Moloy said

that he wants to pick Nirala, making people wonder if he was thinking about it all the while during the discussions. Shailendra called himself Azaad as he is switching jobs. Moloy preferred Anarkali for his wife as compared to Yasmin. A suggested Patanga for K.

The balcony door was kept open to make a permanent spot for Smoke Club members. This meant that we enjoyed the good fragrance from the garden along with the bad. We were also not immune to the natural sounds form the Garden. Squeaking squirrels gave us company while we sipped tea prompting Chiraanjeev ji recount his days in Belgavi? where squirrels were permanent guests during tea time.

Different clans of Saraswats, the correct pronunciation of 'Padukone' and the film stars who have foreign passports rounded up the discussions.

It was past 6 PM, and the South Bangalore team sans Ashok made the move. Ashok had plans to stay overnight. Since he was going back to US, we wished to see him again sooner than later. The Purvanchal Gang squeezed into Chetan's car and enjoyed CR commemorative on the way home.

Another day of lively discussions came to an end but it looks like we never seem to get enough of it.

RMIM Silver Jubilee Meet Report

NIRALA nagmon ka NAMOONA pesh hua is mehfil men
SARGAM ka KHAZANA pesh hua is mehfil men
HUNGAMA aur JHAMELA ki jhalak bhii thi is mehfil men..

The RMIM silver jubilee meet was held in Bangalore on April 8, 9. On behalf of the organizers, I would like to thank all the attendees for making the meet a grand success.

Prologue: The winds of change are blowing across the world, and RMIM is no exception. To put it succinctly, adapt to change or loose your relevance. The veteran RMIMers were at the helm but embraced the record collectors as well as members of other music groups to ensure an eclectic mix of audience. Social media and technology played a major part in the success. Centenary of CR and Silver  Jubilee of the group meant that we had a wider canvas to paint within the limited time. So we collectively decided to adopt a more structured approach, and a schedule was published.

When 50 plus "music nuts" gather together there are bound to be controversies and  difference of opinions. However it didn't really turn out to the "boxing day" that a friend predicted. There was enough breathing space for everyone.

Saturday proceedings:

Inauguration and tribute to CR:

We started at 11:00 am sharp VAK Ranga Rao ji lighting the lamp. A rarely heard version of "ai mere watan ke logon" sung by CR himself was played. What a beginning !

Srinivasn Chari ji introduced VAK, and VAK took over. He mentioned his meetings with PL Santoshi and recalled one instance where PLS was involved in a dubbed Telugu movie. The music director was Satyam. VAK added that PLS wanted to make a movie Radha Krishna with Ranjan and Rehana with music by CR. The movie was scrapped but "tum kya jaano" originally meant for this movie was used for their next association; Shin Shinaki Bubla Boo. VAK went on to mention the different types of songs that were composed for the film.

VAK mentioned that he designs his own shirts. In a meeting with CR, he was asked if he was wearing "chiragh din" brand and his reply was "main hoon alladin". VAK saw "Navrang" in a matinee show in Vishakapatnam. He mentioned how he was captivated by the film and especially the title song "rang de". VAK things that this was the best indian film in which Music, Dance,Lyric and Singing  had come together.

VAK mentioned that music of Anarkali & Sargam, both great, cannot be more different. He also added that CR had a testy relationship with Filmistaan. Insite of giving several hits, he wasn't the first choice for Anarkali. Ravi was supposed to be the first choice and composed "ai baad-e-sabaa". This was news to me as I thought Basant Prakash was the first choice. VAK said that he was the second choice.

VAK mentioned "What is it that impresses me, draws me to his music. Most of the songs have an easy cadence. They delude me into thinking that even i can sing it. That ease." He added that he saw CR compose music for the Telugu film Nijam Cheppite Nammaru. The tune gelled with the writer and CR said "lets not refine it any further as it would loose its spontaneity".

VAK also dispelled a misconception that CR was an assistant to Anil Biswas in Girls school.  Both of them worked together. He added that CR assisted Mir Saheb in "Laal Haveli". When asked about his favorite singers, his response was "Geeta Dutt and Chitalkar". CR's response was" You have poor taste". VAK added that Chitalkar songs are sung to the optimum limit of the requirement of the song.

Wile discussing music of Albela, "dheere se aaja ri" came up."That's the second best film lori" was VAK's response. CR was curious to know which was the first best and when VAK said Salil's "aa ja ri nindiya", CR responsed "you have good taste".

A few minutes of silence was observed for Naqsh Lyallpuri ji and Veena Solomon ji (composer Vinod's daughter). But of them were guests at the last Bangalore meet in 2012 and passed away recently.


In Search of Producer, Actor and Singer C.Ramchandra:

Suresh Chandvankar started by saying that CR was born and died in the same month. There is one more composer who  shares this. I immediately exclaimed "SD Burman". Guri added " If Ganti didn't know that he is in trouble" :) Another common thing noted by Suresh ji was that both the composers were good singers, which added an extra dimension to their songs.

CR was very versatile and sang a variety of genres in Marathi including, Bhav Geet, Bal Geet, Bhakti Geet. We heard several songs but the one that stuck to my mind was a live rendition of

"Pahate Pahate Mala jaag aali
tujhi reshamanchi meethi sail jhaali"

I was almost tempted to go to Nishant and say that he should stop watching as there was no sarangi accompaniment.  Soon enough we had malkauns piece by Lata Mangeshkar, with Pandit Ram Narayan on Sarangi. It wasn't just musical talent on display. One of the slides in the presentation had a record number 62500. Chetan exclaimed "That's a very special record  number. Its 250 Square".

Suresh ji's added that CR was active for more than 4 decades in Marathi and continued to be popular even though he faded away in Hindi. He added that his devotional albums deserved more success but were overshadowed by Sudhir Phadke's Geet Ramayan. Album "Sri Sai Darbaar" was specifically mentioned as CR had high regard for Sai Baba.

Collectors panel discussion:

This had Suresh Chandvankar, Chiranjeev Singh, Giridhari Lal, Nand Kishore, Srinivasan Chari, Rajesh Singh as participants and Gajendra moderated it. Suresh ji talked about preservation of records and briefly mentioned Michael Kinnear's work. Rajesh Kumar Singh talked about his passion for collecting posters, lobby cards and magazines. Nand Kihsore ji recalled his contribution to geet kosh and shared his memories of watching obscure movies. Chiranjeev ji summed up very well saying that it should be a collective effort of individuals and organisations. He also added that vintage film music should be treated seriously just like classical. This started a debate on whether post 60's hindi film music is inferior and we had a lively discussion.

Lata - CR presentation:

Lata-CR tribute by Parthasarathy ji covered several favorites including "ai aankh ab na rona", "tum kya jaano", "aisi muhabbat se ham baaz aaye". When a song from Patanga was played Kalyan asked a trivia question about the significance. It was the first time Lata sang for a heroine under CR.

Meet Commemorative:

Ashok and Chetan then took center stage and talked about the tradition of commemorative in RMIM meets. They briefly mentioned the criteria for song selection and the CR commemorative was distributed.

Guri's quiz :

As usual, we had Guri's video quiz with a mismatch between audio and video sequence. Even after multiple watching's, neither of he teams could get the sequence correctly but managed to crack a few clues. It all came to guessing the theme and scoring the 100 points to win the quiz. We had Vibhendu on our side but i surprised myself by Cracking the anagram. As there were 19 clues, I rightly guessed it as Ramchandra Chitalkar and that was I said to myself that hanging with IIT'ans like Arunabha, Chetan and Kalyan seems to have rubbed off onto me.


RMIM Silver Jubilee :

A book on the 25 years of RMIM complied by Prof. Surjit Singh was distributed and this surprise gift was steeped in nostalgia.
















It was followed by video clips from old timers who talked about what RMIM meant to them. The clips were sent in advance and Chetan amalgamated them. Ketan, Ramesh Hariharan, Arun Sampath, Gautam Choudhury,Neha Desai, Vijay & Pragya,  Abhay Avachat and Vish Krishnan had all contributed. Additionally there was clip from  Sanjeev Ramabhadran. Some of the RMIMers joined through google hangout at this point.  Many thanks to Pavan Jha for make this possible.

Ketan started by talking about history of RMIM meets and everyone pitched in about how RMIM played a bg role in their lives. One has to be careful before  make sweeping statements with RMIMers :) A conversation that hapenned between me and Vijay 15 years back, was used to anchor Vijay and Pragya's segment. Vijay mentioned about my fascination for bachelors as Pragya joined in to say "and then i happened".  Similarly Sushmita happened to me and it was a timely reminder that I had to leave soon. Although Chetan tried to persuade me to stay back, my householder duties got the better of me. My wife returned the favor by joining me at the meet on Sunday. That precisely meant that my attention on Sunday was divided and any omissions & digressions in the report should be taken in stride.

Sunday:

I woke up early and noticed that Arunabha had posted a note about the late night session at Chetan's place. I was very happy as the tradition of late night session was revived. I was soon alerted by a message from Pradeep Dubey enquiring if the directions from airport were correct.  I was delighted as Pradeep's constant wit has been a big source of entertainment over the years.

We arrived before 11 am and caught up with Pradeep. Our early arrival also gave me an opportunity to interact with VAK Ranga Rao. This year happens to be centenary of legendary composer KV Mahadevan. In fact I wanted to do a tribute to him but we had such a packed agenda that Shailendra and I dropped our events. KVM was our family composer while I was growing up and I explained the significance to VAK. On one had my parents and uncle adored KVM's 60's output. The highpoint was mooga manasulu which was also cherished for its locales in and around river Godavari, where they grew up. It was a constant in the house along with contemporary Mahadevan hits of that time like Shankarabharanam. While agreeing that KVM brought classical music into our houses, VAK emphasized that he wasn't the only one. He recounted his interactions with KVM and his assistant Puhalendi.

Social Themes in Film Songs:

When i started working on setting the event schedule for the meet, one item that caught my eye was Sushrut's presentation.  We had to deal with several parameters while finalising  the agenda and Sushrut's couldn't be accommodated on Saturday. Given that it was discussion I slotted it for prime time, and I am glad it generated lot of discussion. It started "dilli tere kile par" 1857  and ended with "zameen bhi vohii...magar dilli ki galiyan kahaan" from Chandi Chowk. This Delhi nostalgia and Patriotic undercurrents showcased through "door hato" (Kismat), "ab darne ki koii baat nahiin" (Shaheed), " vande mataram" (multiple versions) meant that Sushmita also enjoyed the presentation.

The stature of Women in Bengak and Maharashtra was debated. Iconic movies like Devdas, Aurat and Prabhat's Manus was well received. The conflict of devdas torn between Paro and family duty was well illustrated with KC Deys "mat bhool musafir tujhe jaana hi padega". The high  hopes post independence and the later disillusionment was also well captured. Dilip Kumar  as torch bearer of Nehruvian ideals and the socialist themes of Raj Kapoor films was demonstrated. There was an interesting debate as to " vo surah kabhi to aayegi" was more of hope or caution. Lunch with bisibelle bath, gulab jamoon was the perfect way to take a break.  Special thanks to Shailendra and his wife for taking care of the food section.

Prelude song quiz:

Abhay Phadnis quiz was very entertaining and it was the prefect way to energize us after a heavy lunch. It had 3 different sections.

sun to sahii (5 points each) – 2 rounds:
The prelude will be played as an audio clue
Expected answer: The first line of the mukha.Daa of the song

zaraa sii baat (10 points each):
Just 3 words from the prelude (not necessarily the first three!) will form the clue
Expected answer: The first line of the prelude and the first line of the mukha.Daa of the song

de mujhko zubaa.N aur (10 points each):  An English translation of the prelude will be given
Expected answer: the first line of the prelude and the first line of the mukha.Daa of the song

There were 2 teams and Guri conspired to get several of the veterans to his side. Thanks to that and
the self goals comitted by our team, they won hands down. Our team was just happy that they won
Guri's quiz.

I am not going to give more details as Arunabha had posted the clues for non attendees to participate.


Anmol Geet:

Gajendra's anmol geet was similar to his recent quizzes. He would play lesser know songs  mostly from pre 50s and we need to guess singers, composers etc. This was in record collector territory and went above the head of many. Pradeep Dubey sitting next to me was equally clueless and started cracking jokes at every opportunity which kept Sushmita entertained. Gajendra  announced that correct guess would be awarded with postal stamp. First clue was to name a Ghulam Mohd  movie that did not have shamshad as singer.  Several wrong guesses and a hint later, Kalyan got it as Do Gunde and asked his son Vedant to collect the stamps. And Gajendra cudnt find them promoting the crowd to say that Do Gunde have stolen them. Kalyan ensured that many stamps stay in CV Raman Nagar  by cracking several questions including a Geeta Dutt song by V. Balsara.  One of the clues was to guess name of an unreleased. It promoted Pradeep to say "How can  an unreleased film have a name ?" Babies don't get named during ultra sound scan. In the middle of this humor I managed a "Jai  Santoshi Maa" moment by guessing Kalyani as a singer for a Jagmohan duet.

We enjoyed Sandwiches and mirchi bajji during tea break.

PL Santoshi:

Pavan Jha presented a talk on PL Santoshi. He recalled that even though PLS had some big hits he was not given his due recognition. His mastery over using english in songs as far back as 40's was emphasised. PLS association with CR and their jubilee hits like Shehnai, Khidki and Sargam was recalled. Santoshi's heartbreak over Rehana and his subsequent downfall was discussed. Pavan
pointed out that just the one song "tum kya jaano" from Shin Shinaki Bublaa Boo was enough to
put PLS among elite club of lyricists.It was also mnetioned that Santoshi had a brief return to
success in 60's with Barsaat ki Raat and Dil Hi To Hai. The presentation ended with "ye ishq ishq".


Nand Kishore ji showed a slideshow of his meetings with celebrities and distributed a CD of rare songs of Lata Mangeshkar.

We then took group photograph of the attendees.

The next event was a compilation of video songs by Mr. Kulkarni. I was happy to see full version of "badly men chhupe chaand". "mere man ka  baanwara panchi", " jab dil ko sataave gam", "dil lagaa kar ham ye samjhe", "vo chaand Jahaan vo jaaye", "Jap jap jap re" were among the other songs.

A dvd sent by Vijay Nafde that had clips from CR's BBC interview including his rendition of "aadha
hai chandrama" was presented. Final item was singing. Gauri Diwan sang a Lata-CR song followed by  Ram Nagraj's "aa chal ke tujhe". It was now time to say Goodbyes and we all left with a flood of fond memories.

Quizzes, free flowing night session, and the more serious discussions meant that there was something for everyone and I was delighted to see that all the attendees had a good time.

On that note I signing off with a few links on the press coverage of the meet. There were a few attendees who saw the announcement in news papers, and turned out to the meet.

1. Article in Deccan Herald by DHNS on 05-Apr-2017:
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/604730/worldwide-group-vintage-music-buffs.html

2. Article in The Hindu by Ranjani Govind on 08-Apr-2017:
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/vintage-music-made-available-to-public/article17881943.ece

3. Article in The Hindu by Namrata Joshi on 09-Apr-2017:
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sundaymagazine/play-it-again/article17896679.ece

4. Article in Deccan Herald by DHNS on 10-Apr-2017:
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/605629/fabled-collectors-vintage-records-discuss.html

Dulcets from December

Prologue : December has more than its fair share of festivities. Close on the heels of Arun Sampath, Sudarshna Bhat visits Bangalore. The hosting duties pass from Gajendra to Kalyan. The SDB book changes hands from Arunabha to Ashok to Moloy and 2016 gives way to 2017. Amidst all this, songs are heard, sparks are ignited , and releases are planned. Here's an attempt to capture those memorable moments.

Kalyan sends a message that we can feel free to come early.  I decide to go on time and realise I came early ☺  While i came empty handed, this gives me an opportunity to give him a hand. We replace the older  TV with a flat monitor. As soon as Kalyan connects his laptop to the computer, i quipped" is the controversial quiz coming" To think of it controversy and Kalyan are oxymoron's. So quiz or not, the expectation is that we will have our hands and stomachs full.

The latter first since its festive season. Sweets and snacks are neatly spread out by Kalyan. I could spot Fruit Burfi, Kaju Katli and Jahangri ? Chivda and Bhujia complement the sugar blast. A few doorbells ring and we have everyone except Anup.

Ashok and lesser know lyricists have been linked for ever. He picks Veer Mohammadpuri and I say Zindagi Aur Hum. Tuu hamko dekh is the only song written by him. Ashok then mentions Satyendra Athyaiya. Kalyan adds thst he was married to the oscar winning choreographer Bhanu.  Ashok and Chetan find a balcony strategically positioned for smoke breaks. It's conducted in secrecy with doors and windows closed.

Kalyan talks about Geeta Dutt calendar and Bharati and Archana's contribution. He shows the soft copy of images and writeup. He adds that it got delayed but will be released in a week. Chetan responds " Your deadline is tomorrow".


Kalyan starts, although Ganti is SDB fan he has publicised chaitanya mahaprabhu and hyderabad kind Nazneen more. I pitch in that if you ask Delhi folks, they would identify me with Roshan than other composers.
 Kalyan  plays "nazron men samaane se qaraar" and claims it to be my farmaish. Kalyan adds that we are marveling at Khans as heroes in 50s but actor Jairaj was leading man in 5 decades and even did his own stunts. He quotes an incident in which he is riding a horse and comes to the edge of the fort. The horse comes to a screeching halt. "How can a horse come to screeching halt ? " is the audience response. Then Kalyan picks "sapne hue saanche"  from chaitanya mahaprabhu and attributes it to me. What a hidden agenda of playing songs and claiming it to be others request. Meanwhile others get their chance. Moloy apparently requested another song from singaar but it appeared to me that Kalyaan is playing entire singaar track. Ashok requests for an Asha song that was introduced to him by Vish at Portland meet. I make my first farmaish with "shaam ki tanhayian" from Zarak Khan and add that it's written by Anand Bakshi. Ashok notes that this is Anand Bakshi before he was corrupted by LP.

Kalyan requests for restrictive farmaish and asks Ashok to pick a song of Lacchiram. Ashok does one better by picking a Lacchiram - Anand Bakshi combo, " dhalti jaaye raat". Kalyan adds that he likes Asha - Rafi duets although he is not a big fan of either. He adds that he likes one particular song in which Ravi is crisp and Asha is sweet. I add that "ai sabaa key zaraa " is among my favorites and Kalyan adds that he had the same song in mind. He plays the song and once again says that it's Ganti's farmaish. On looking at visuals of Manipal and Shakeela, Moloy exclaims " beauty and beast". Chiranjeev ji adds that Manipal and Sahu Modak were among his favourite childhood actors as kids and were allowed to watch only mythologicals and religious movies.

Gajendra requests Rekha bharadwaaj song and Chiranjeev Singh chimes that her voice is similar to Sharda. So we hear a song from around the world. Meanwhile a controversy from Ruksana is beaten to death. RD Burman and Ravi's classical output is debated and Moloy jumps in " what's wrong with Ravi". I point to an old article by Ashok where he said that Ravi has only 6 songs ! Ashok himself is scratching his head to remember this article. Chetan bats for Arunabha and yours truly for digging old posts of Ashok.

Gajendra requests another song by popon and warns that the video should not be seen. Chetan exclaims that we are not jumping decades and centuries but millenia.
We break for lunch as Pizza is delivered. Anup comes right behind the delivery guy. It's left to the readers imagination if Anup came just for the food as he was soon ready to leave☺ We enjoy pizza while catching up on interesting anecdotes like how Anup and Sudarshana found that their fathers were consecutive  principals of the same school. Rasgullas and sweet curd round up the delicacies.

Sudarshna sheepishly remarks that he isnt requesting as its relatively new. He asks for a song from 80's movie pooja. We all rack our brains for the composer and find its Anu Malik. Ashok adds " oh he has composed the best song of 2015". So we listen to " ye mooh mooh ke dhaage". Sudarshna's son requests the title song of Uljhan. While this points to generation gap we wonder who's the father and who's the son ☺
Anup lobbies for the Kishore version and a seemingly innocent query on the Lata version opens a can of worms. Kalyan adds fuel to fire by declarering that the only song where Lata version is better than Talat is from Kunwari. He goes on play the song and thankfully doesn't attribute it to my list of imaginary farmaishes.

New Year plans mean that we leave a little early than planned giving Kalyan the perfect excuse for not doing his controversial quiz. Hopefully we will have it for the next meet. Here's wishing everyone a happy and musical new year.

Celebrating Saawan

Road to Paradise :

The saying goes "the journey is more important than the destination". But what happens if you
reach the wrong destination ?

Kalyan Kolachala did exactly that by managing to find "maruthi  paradise" at the same
intersection as given in the address. It just happened to be in the adjacent suburb though.

By the time Kalyan arrived; Arun, Anup, Dharma, Sundeep reached from much greater
distances. Now who's Arun ? Obviously not Arun Sampath but a shorter version of
Arunabha. Kalyan was followed by Gajendra leading credence to the theory that the
nearest reach the last. Chetan's arrival after that only corroborated this.

Anup made the sojourn almost sound like "road to perdition" by mentioning all the other
places in the world he could have reached but barely avoided.The critical mass assembled
in time for some mouth watering food from Anand's and Mast Kalander. Anup and Chetan
pitched in with their contribution's that further whetted the appetite.

tum meri mehfil me na aao to koii baat nahiin, tum kisi aur ki..

Kalyan turned to Arunabha, 'So you finally showed up"prompting Arunabha to say
"you didn't show up last time". Obviously the work pressures and other responsibilities
take a toll. So a big thanks to all friends for taking time out and making this a big success.
It was a special occasion for us too, since we had guests for the first time in Bangalore.

Dharma and Sundeep:

They arrived to Bangalore form Kottayam and told us interesting stories of the Suuny
Matthews music library. The library includes pictures of some record collectors, including
that of Mr. G.N Khanna; who is better known as Gajendra among friends.

Sundeep Pahwa noted that ever since I moved from Delhi to Bangalore, I have almost
vanished from online music forums. Dharma's witty reply that I moved from the
out-laws to the in-laws, had everyone in splits. Sundeep ji told about his film connection
and the movies his father produced.


Celebrating Saawan:

We welcomed Saawan with Ghewar brought by Anup and "garjat barsat bheejat".
Shankar Jaikishan was the flavor of the day as far as discussions were concerned. Dharma
was reeling out anecdotes about the composer while the rest were busy assessing the
composers body of work.

Sticking to the theme we heard "kaare badra tuu na jaa na jaa"and unanimously appreciated
the SJ of the 50's. Opinion about 60's  SJ was divided, as some friends were not fans of the
huge orchestra. What influenced Raj Kapoor move from SJ to LP for Bobby ? This was hotly
debated while Dharma pointed to some factual evidence like the poster of Bobby with SJ's
name, postponement of the muhurat due to Prithviraj Kapoor's illness.

We continued to listen to songs in the background and when I played "o varsha ke pehle
baadal" Chetan quickly reeled out the Pstats. He may have mellowed down with age,
but an instant failure to recall pstats of "ghir ghir ke aasman par" in the forum made him
to respond; "How can you forget that. Roshan. Bawre Nain". In a moment the clock
turned back more than a decade, and the firebrand, passionate man behind so  many meets
came to the fore !  Those are the moments I wait for.

Kalyan's presence is equally welcome for different reasons. His witty interjections lightens even
the most serious of conversations. Here is his amusing take on RMIM meet commemorative.
When a section of the people say  Lata Mangeshkar should stop singing, RMIM comes up with
a commemorative "abhi to main jawaan huun". And when another section says, Lata is the best;
they come up with 'Geet Kitne Gaa Chuki Huun" to show that Asha leads in numbers.

Soon we were transported into those days thanks to Sundeep ji's announcement
of an SJ program in Flint, Michingan. Discussion turned to how insignificant cities
are state capitals in US in contrast to India. We ended up rewinding the history of RMIM
and the first meet at Ketan's place.

Odd Man Out:

When I announced "Next song is for Anup", people started guessing what it can be.

Popular number ? Kishore Kumar song ? Song for Gentleman ?
Apparently Anup was complemented on another group "You are too nice to be an RMIMer" :)

My criteria was to pick a 70's song and Anup took us to his childhood days in Dehradun
where they had free shows of movies from that time in their housing society. The choice
"rim jhim gire sawaan" turned out to be apt in more ways than we thought as Anup had
some personal connects with the movie. He also mentioned about his Mama ji who was
associated with the movie Madmast.

The songs, food and discussions took the best part of the afternoon. Some friends
had already planned to go to Nalini Shah program. So we decided to part around 5:00 pm
after another wonderful session.

 Sushmita  was wondering why I played only a few songs and most of the time was spent
in discussions which weren't always musical.
I told her the full form of RMIM,  rec.music.indian.MISC(ellaneous)  :)